Glitter is often desirable element for printed products such as invitations, greeting cards, holiday cards, gift bags, commercial packaging products such as folding cartons, tags, retail bags, labels, and other similar products. However, prior techniques for applying glitter to the printed products have not resulted in ideal adhesion of the glitter to the substrate. Bending, folding, or abrasion of the paper or other printable medium often causes glitter to fall off. Adherence of the glitter is particularly critical when the paper or other substrate to which the glitter is adhered is to be passed through a printer. In particular, digital, offset, offset UV, lithographic, flexographic, ink jet, and toner based printing machines require the use of a glitter coated printing medium that will not leave any glitter or other undesirable residue inside the printer. Shedding glitter within such a machine can cause extensive damage to the machine, requiring significant repair and/or cleanup in order to restore the functionality the machine.
The addition of glitter to paper or other printable mediums can create additional printing problems. In general, a smooth, ink receptive surface is desirable for the highest quality printing. The addition of glitter coated on the substrate using prior art methods compromises the smoothness, ink receptiveness, and ink adhesion, thereby significantly reducing the quality of printing on that glitter-coated printable medium as well as the permanence of any ink that is printed overtop of the glitter.
Accordingly, there is a need for a printable glitter paper or other printing medium providing for complete adherence of the glitter to or within the printable medium. Even more desirable would be entrapping the glitter within a coating on the paper. There is a further need for printable glitter paper that not only completely and securely traps the glitter, but also provides a sufficiently smooth, ink-receptive surface for high quality or even photo grade print quality on the printable medium.